This invention relates to a basket for an orbital washer of the type described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 39,406, filed May 15, 1979 by John Bochan, assigned to the instant assignee and incorporated herein by reference thereto.
An orbital washer as described in the above-cited U.S. patent application, Ser. No. 39,406 employs a drive system such as an eccentric drive, which moves the basket in a particular generally horizontal orbital motion during its clothes washing and rinsing cycles. During the spin cycle the basket is centered and rotated rapidly to remove water from the clothes.
Motion of cloth inside a basket driven in an orbital path as described in the above-mentioned patent application is caused by interaction of the cloth with the basket bottom and the sidewall. Due to the motion of the basket, the cloth tends to move in a helical path continuously about the circumference of the basket. Energy is transferred from the basket to the cloth by interaction of the cloth with the interior surfaces of the basket generating turbulent motion of the cloth and thereby washing of cloth. The shapes of the surfaces of the basket which contact the cloth determine the pattern of motion of cloth within the basket during orbiting thereof. A desirable objective of basket design is to expose all portions of the cloth to be washed to contact with the interior surfaces of the basket to optimize washing action.